Using Information as WMDs

Petko D. Petkov channels Alfred Mahan in this ominous story:

Those who control the information flow now govern the world. New technologies and web applications have changed the entire communication blueprint. The big corporations have realized that they might lose control over the masses by letting normal people produce and share their own content—a trend that is already happening with the growth of Web 2.0 social technologies...

There are many evidences that Black PR (the process of harming someone’s identity and repute) leaves its eastern roots and is being chosen as a main communication tool by many western industries. According to Ivana Kalay (founder of SpinHunters, the first PR security company in the world), the tendencies show that many highly skilled black-hats (skilled information security hackers who pursue their interests illegally) will be hired by large enterprises to get into internal rival’s network and steal sensitive information.

This also reminds me of the recent smear campaigns conducted by certain liberal interest groups against General Petraeus and Rush Limbaugh. Who knew MoveOn was so capitalistic!

I wrote a very similar article a while back on the same subject titled "Battle of the Airwaves", where I also compared the Information Age to Mahanian naval theory.